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1 T 

LETTER OF 
GEN. GREEN IS. RAUM 

RELATING TO 


H. R. 24544, 

TO CREATE A SPECIAL ROLL TO BE 
KNOWN AS THE “VOLUNTEER 
RETIRED LIST,” 


BEFORE THE 


COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS, 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 


WASHINGTON: 


GOVERNMENT PRINTING. OFFICE. 

1907 .- A:- • i 





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VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


Washington, D. C., February 6 , 1907. 

Dear Sir: I have examined the report of the War Department to 
your committee upon H. R. 24544, a bill “To create in the War 
Department a roll to be known as the ‘Volunteer Retired List,’to- 
authorize placing thereon with retired pay certain surviving officers of 
the United States Volunteer Army of the civil war, and for other 
purposes,” giving an estimate of the number of commissioned officers 
of the United States Volunteer Army of the civil war now living who 
would be eligible to retirement under the provisions of said bill. The 
number of officers of volunteers commissioned in said war is stated at 
125,000, and the number now living is estimated at one-fourth of 
that number, namely, 31,500. There is no statement of facts by which 
to judge the accuracy of these figures; indeed, the report broadly 
states that there are no facts collated upon which to base a reliable 
estimate as to the number of officers who are living and would be 
eligible to the provisions of said bill. 

It will be observed that the bill contains a limitation to eligibility 
to retirement as follows: 

Each person so entered shall have served with credit as an officer or an enlisted 
man not less than one year in the field with troops in said Volunteer Army between 
April fifteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and July fifteenth, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-five. 

This requirement looks to the recognition of long actual military 
service, and is exclusive as to those who enlisted for short terms, and 
those who remained in the service so short a time that they did not 
serve “one year in the field with troops.” The records of the War 
Department show the number of men called for from time to time by 
the President and the length of service for which these men were 
enlisted. These figures have been collated into tables and published 
by authority. They show that there were 1,665,940 officers and men 
enlisted in the various States and mustered into the service of the 
United States for a term of three years, and that 30,950 men were 
enlisted for a term of two years, making a total of 1,696,890 officers 
and men, the length of service of whose officers may have qualified 
them for eligibility for retirement under said bill. 

These published records, however, do not state the number of regi¬ 
ments into which this vast body of men were divided and thus give a 
clue to the probable number of officers required. The War Depart¬ 
ment records no doubt contain the necessary facts, but they are not 
easily accessible, consequently it is necessary to look to other sources 
for information. 


3 



4 


VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


During the continuance of the civil war it was the.settled policy of 
the War Department and of the State authorities to keep the number 
of men in the long-term regiments up to the maximum as nearly as 
possible. In some cases new companies were raised for certain regi¬ 
ments, but in most cases the depleted ranks of the companies were 
filled by securing recruits. The reports of the adjutant-generals of the 
various States present the question in a clear light. It is perfectly safe 
to say that there was not one regiment in a hundred of three years’ 
service in any of the States that did not receive large numbers of 
recruits. I have before me the 8 volumes of these reports for Illinois. 
These books open up a mine of interest on this subject. Beginning 
with the Seventh Regiment, which was the number of the first three 
years’ regiment from Illinois, it is found three new companies—C, D, 
and G—were recruited and mustered into this regiment. The Eighth 
Illinois Infantry received 949 recruits; the Eleventh Illinois had a 
total of 1,982 officers and men; the Thirty-first Illinois 870 recruits, 
and so through the whole list of three-year regiments. 

The same system prevailed in all the Northern States. I have infor¬ 
mation from Col. and Bvt. Brig. Gen. James Stuart, jr., who com¬ 
manded the Ninth New Jersey Infantry, that during its service it had 
2,770 enlisted men besides commissioned officers. 

Upon the information I have obtained I venture the statement that 
there were no more than 1,200 regiments under whose banner these 
long-service men marched. Each of these regiments was entitled to 
86 officers, which makes a grand total of 43,200 officers for these 
1,200 regiments. It is well known that the official force of every regi¬ 
ment was constantly undergoing changes; new officers were commis¬ 
sioned to take the places of those w 7 ho retired by death, resignation, 
or otherwise; the new officers were almost invariably promoted from 
the lower grades or from the ranks; many men received two, three, 
and sometimes four commissions in the same regiment. 

I have examined the records of a number of regiments to arrive at a 
just conclusion, first, as to the average number of individuals who were 
commissioned in each regiment, and, second, the number of officers 
who retired from the service before the first year of their enlistment 
expired. These latter officers would not be eligible under the bill. In 
my opinion the average number of individual officers commissioned in 
each regiment was 58 and the average number of officers who resigned 
before their first year’s service expired was 13, while others resigned 
after a service of more than one year. There were 6,365 officers of 
volunteers who were killed in battle or died of wounds; 90 per cent of 
these no doubt belonged to these 1,200 regiments, namely, 5,729. 
Apply these figures to this problem and we have the following result: 

The 1,200 regiments, with 58 officers commissioned from time to time, gives a 

total official force of. 69, 600 

Deduct 13 officers from each regiment who resigned before serving one year. 15, 600 


54,400 

From this deduct officers killed in battle or died of wounds. 5, 729 

Total number of long-service officers surviving at close of war. 48,671 


Accepting the War Department estimate that one-fourth of these 
are now living, the number would be 12,168. 

In my opinion, however, this estimate is too high. We know that 
of the 120 major-generals of volunteers who were living at the close 







VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


5 


of the war, July, 1865, there are now but 6 survivors, 4 of whom are 
on the retired List, and that of the 3T7 brigadier-generals living at the 
close of the war only 30 now survive, being 8 per cent of the whole. 
It seems unreasonable to suppose that, as there are onty 8 per cent of the 
brigadier-generals of volunteers living, that there are 25 per cent of 
the regimental and company officers of the veteran regiments living. 
Inquiry has been made of 100 officers who commanded regiments as to 
the number of officers of their regiments now living. Replies are 
coming in by every mail, particularly from regiments whose survivors 
hold annual reunions. New England, Middle, and Western States are 
heard from. These reports show that the hand of time has lain heavily 
upon the heads of the volunteer officers of the civil war. While the 
number of survivors in the various regiments reported upon materially 
differ, the average number of survivors reported is 9 to each regi¬ 
ment. This average is probably too low, but the lists include all surviv¬ 
ing officers, w hether they are eligible under the bill or not. It must be 
understood that the surviving officers of the United States Volunteer 
Army of the civil war who are included in this bill represent the 
regiments of long service, the veteran regiments of that war. 

They had engaged in the long and arduous service of the greatest 
war of the world. Success to the Union arms hinged upon a great 
sustained effort, mental and physical, which should call into action the 
supreme moving springs of their being—patriotism, courage, and 
fortitude. 

These survivors and their comrades who have gone before, responded 
to that great call of> their country, performed all the important duties 
of command, and led our embattled host to final victory. The Union, 
the Constitution, and the Republic were saved. It does not stand to 
reason, it can not be believed, that the officers and soldiers of the 
armies of the Union who participated in the great campaigns and 
battles of a four-years’ war returned to their homes when that war 
ended with unimpaired vitality. 

The evidences are too numerous and conclusive to admit a doubt of 
the proposition that the military service of the civil war so impaired 
the vital forces of a large proportion of the participants that they 
died and are dying before their time. 

I will state for the information of the committee that during my 
three and a half years of service as Commissioner of Pensions—1889- 
1893—I became impressed with the idea that the long service officers 
and soldiers of the civil war were not living out their years of rea¬ 
sonable expectancy. 

Animated by this idea, 1 instituted certain investigations. I caused 
an examination of 475,000 cases, taken at random, to ascertain the 
length of service of the pensioners. It was found that men who had 
served thirty-five months were drawing the largest number of pen¬ 
sions, and that the long-service men from two and one-half years to 
four years were drawing the larger number of pensions, it being dis¬ 
closed that a very small per cent of the whole number of pensions 
granted were to persons who had served six months and under. This 
table can be procured at the Pension Bureau. 

I also caused an examination of the records of 16,000 cases of pen¬ 
sioners who had died. 

The ages of these men at their death was ascertained, and the stand¬ 
ard rules of life expectancy were applied to each case. It was found 


6 


VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


that these men had, on an average, died twelve } T ears before their time. 
I interested myself seriously in the medical examinations that were 
made throughout the country of officers and soldiers in connection 
with their pension claims. These examinations disclosed the fact that 
a large proportion of these men were suffering with heart disease and 
other incurable ailments of physical and mental strain and nervous 
shock. 

I witnessed the great procession attendant upon the national encamp¬ 
ment of the Grand Army of the Republic at Washington City in 1902 
and observed that a large proportion of the veterans in that column of 
65^000 men exhibited marked curvature of the spine. 

With all these facts before me I came to the conclusion that the 
great majority of both officers and soldiers of the volunteer army of 
the civil war would not live out their days. 

This conclusion has been strengthened by accumulating facts. The 
death roll in the Pension Bureau of officers and soldiers of the civil war 
from July 1,1895, to June 30, 1906, is 292,500, beginning with 19,265 
the first year of this period and ending with 36,319 deaths the last 
year of this period. I deem it therefore safe to estimate that the num¬ 
ber of officers whose services would entitle them to retirement with pay 
under the provisions of H. R. 24544 will not exceed 10,000. My de¬ 
liberate opinion is that the number will fall below these figures. 

And now in respect to the merits of this measure: 

First. It is a matter of history that while the Regular Army is a 
permanent establishment, the Government never has and perhaps never 
will, rely upon it to tight the battles of a great war, but will in the 
future, as it has done in the past, call for large bodies of volunteers to 
take the field and bear the heat and burden of the conflict. 

Second. It is simply a matter of evenhanded justice that when vol¬ 
unteers are called into the field the laws should accord to officers of 
volunteers the same honors and emoluments granted to officers of the 
Regular Army for like service. This has never been done, and vol¬ 
unteer officers hold that it is a glaring injustice which should now be 
corrected. The acts of July 28, 1866, and March 3, 1875, established 
a discrimination as to the value of services rendered by officers in the 
civil war under their volunteer commissions. A number of officers 
of minor grades in the Regular Army obtained commissions as colonels 
of volunteer regiments and brigadier-generals of volunteers. Under 
the acts above cited these officers were retired not upon their rank in 
the Regular Army as lieutenant or captain, but as major-generals and 
brigadier-generals upon their rank in the Volunteer Army, while no 
volunteer officer who did not also have a commission in the Regular 
Army could be retired at all, however high his rank, however impor¬ 
tant his service or however great his disabilities. These acts may be 
called ancient history, but they established the precedents for future 
legislation. 

The act of April 23, 1901, followed. 

It is given below: 

retire: officers. 

That any officer below the grade of brigadier-general who served with credit as 
an officer or as an enlisted man in the regular or volunteer forces during the civil 
war prior to April ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, otherwise than as a cadet, 
and whose name is borne on the Official Register of the Army, and who has hereto¬ 
fore been, or may hereafter be, retired on account of wounds or disability incident to 


VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


7 


the service, or on account of age or after forty years’ service, may in the discretion of 
the President, by and with the advice of the Senate, be placed on the retired list of the 
Army with the rank and retired pay of one grade above that actually held by him 
at the time of his retirement. 

Under this act 354 officers then on the retired list were re-retired 
with one grade increase in rank and retired pay; 92 of these officers 
were originally retired as colonels but now by operation of law 
were made brigadier-generals with an increase of $1,125 per annum 
in retired pay. A number of other officers have since been retired 
with increased rank under this act. A colonel of the Regular Army 
is soon to be retired as a brigadier-general with the usual increase in 
retired pay because he served “with credit” as a private soldier for 
eighteen months during the civil war. This honorable recognition of 
military service is not granted to these officers because of credtiable 
service in the Regular Army since the civil war but is granted forty- 
two years after the close of that war solely upon the ground that they 
“served with credit during the civil war.” 

Now, if Congress deems it wise and just to confer this honor and 
emolument upon these officers of the Regular Army for the reason 
named, pray, upon what ground can the same honor and emolument 
be withheld from officers of volunteers who served with equal credit 
during the civil war? 

Is a discrimination of this character just to volunteer officers, or 
honorable to the heart of this great nation? 

This measure to create a volunteer retired list has been before your 
committee since December 18, 1905, when H. R. 8989 was referred. 
That bill, as is well known, provided for the retirement of surviving 
major-generals, brigadier-generals, and certain brevet brigadier-gen¬ 
erals of volunteers of the civil war at the age of 70 who had served 
two and a half years, one year of which was in the field with troops. 

It was distinctly stated before your committee that the petitioners 
relied on the act of March 3, 1905, for the retirement as brigadier- 
generals of Generals Hawley and Osterhaus as a precedent which 
warranted the introduction of the bill and which should insure its 
passage. 

These questions were propounded: 

Why shall not the principle of this act retiring Generals Hawley and Osterhaus be 
made applicable to the remnant of generals of volunteers of the Union Army now sur¬ 
viving, and thus avoid further special legislation in behalf of particular individuals? 
Are there any just reasons why a discrimination shall be made by Congress against 
other volunteer generals of long and arduous service in the same war? Can any mem¬ 
ber of either House of Congress who supported the former bill assign a just ground 
for opposing this? 

1 trust that you will not deem it improper for me to inform vou 
that of thtf 200 men eligible to the provision of the bill, 20 have died 
since its introduction. 

In the course of discussing this measure reference was made to the 
liberal provisions in the way of grants of land to the officers of the 
Revolutionary Arm} 7 , and also to the act of May 15, 1828, the first 
section of which provided for placing surviving officers of the Conti¬ 
nental line on full pay, not to exceed that of a captain, said pay to 
begin March 3, 1826, and the third section of which act granted the 
surviving noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates who 
enlisted for and during the war and continued in service until its ter¬ 
mination, and thereby became entitled to a reward of $80, under a 


8 


VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


previous resolve of Congress should be entitled to receive their full 
monthly pay in said service during their natural lives, commencing 
March 3, 1826. 

Reference is now made to the act of June 7, 1832, which placed all 
surviving officers of the Revolutionary Army, not provided for by 
the act of May 15, 1828, who had served two years, upon full pay of 
their rank, not to exceed the pay of a captain of the line, and to those 
who served not less than six months a proportionate ratio of such pay 
for the length of their service. It is proper to state in the most 
specitic manner that the act of May 15, 1828, placed certain of the 
officers of the Revolutionary Army on full pay of their rank, not to 
exceed that of a captain of the line, and at the same time granted full 
pay to noncommissioned officers, musicians, and enlisted men who had 
enlisted for the war and had served until the close ; and that the act 
of June 7, 1832, made provision for all surviving officers, noncommis¬ 
sioned officers, musicians, soldiers, and Indian spies who had served 
in the Continental line or State troops, volunteers or militia, at one or 
more terms, a period of two years during the war of the Revolution, 
and who were not included in the act of Ma}^ 15, 1828, by granting 
full pay, to commence March I, 1831, and also provided that any such 
officers, noncommissioned officers, musicians, or privates who had 
served less than two years, but not less than six months, should receive 
pay proportioned to the length of their service. 

The provisions of this act were extended to all officers, noncommis¬ 
sioned officers, mariners, or marines who served for a like term in the 
naval service during the Revolutionary war. 

These acts provided for and included every officer and enlisted man 
who served for six months or more in the Army or Navy during the 
Revolutionary war. 

For convenient reference, to enable the committee to compare the 
provisions of the act of May 15, 1828, and the act of June 7, 1832, 
with the provisions of H. R. 24514, the acts of 1828 and 1832 are 
printed as an appendix to this letter. 

Your attention is respectfully invited to the report by the House 
Committee on Pensions upon S. 976, being Report No. 6901, an extract 
from which is printed herewith in said appendix. 

Taking these measures as a precedent. Mr. Dawes introduced H. R. 
24544, which is modeled substantially upon the lines of these acts. 
The bill is now before you. The passage of this bill will be an act of 
wisdom and justice, and is warranted by the acts of May 15, 1828, 
June 7,1832, July 28,1866, March 3,1875, February 2, 1901, April 23, 
1904, and March 3, 1905. 

This bill (H. R. 24544) provides that each person eligible thereunder, 
as above stated, shall receive “ one-half pay at the age of sixty-six years 
and three-fourths pay at the age of seventy years, according to his 
actual rank, which pay shall be the same as that now or hereafter received 
by retired officers of like rank in the Regular Army, not to exceed the 
full pa}^ of a captain of cavalry.” 

This is a kindred measure of the Senate pension bill 976, which 
passed the House of Representatives the 4th instant under a suspension 
of the rules, providing “that any person who served ninety days or 
more in the military or naval service of the United States during the 
late civil war or sixty days in the war with Mexico, and who has been 
honorably discharged therefrom, and who has reached the age of sixty- 


VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


9 


two years or over, shall, upon making proof of such facts according to 
such rules and regulations as the Secretar} 7 of the Interior may pro¬ 
vide, be placed upon the pension roll and be entitled to receive a 
pension as follows: In case such person has reached the age of sixty- 
two years, twelve dollars per month; seventy years, fifteen dollars per 
month; seventy-five years or over, twenty dollars per month.” 

The passage of H. R. 24544 will practically complete the work of 
giving honorable recognition to all the surviving oliicers and soldiers 
of the civil war, substantially as was done b} 7 the acts of 1828 and 1831. 

It may be objected that this bill will involve too great an expendi¬ 
ture, that there are too many officers to be provided for. It must be 
borne in mind that these surviving officers are but a remnant of the 
great army of the war period. A large majority have passed over to 
the eternal camping ground. During the tremendous struggle for the 
preservation of the Union, President Lincoln and Secretaiy Stanton 
never raised their voices in protest that too many men were volunteer¬ 
ing. And now, forty-two years after the close of the war, shall it be 
said that too many of these officers are now living to justify the Fifty- 
ninth Congress, representing this great American nation, to enact this 
law as a final expression of gratitude and of honorable recognition of 
the services of these men ? 


Representing, with others, those who are interested in this measure, 
I now earnestly request that the House of Representatives shall be 
given an opportunity to vote upon FI. R. 24544. 

Itls well understood that the destin} 7 of this bill is in the hands of 
the Committee on Military Affairs and the Committee on Rules of 
the House of Representatives. 

There is ample time before the adjournment of Congress to have 
this measure considered and voted upon in the House, if a majority of 
these two committees decide that it shall he done. 

The deliberate opinion of the friends of this measure is that if the 
House is giveman opportunity to vote upon it it will pass, and that it 
will be heartily approved by the people. 

I sincerely trust that your committee will immediately report the 
bill favorably to the House and aid in its passage. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

Green B. Raum. • 


Hon. John A. T. Hull, 

Chairman Committee on Military Affairs , 

House of Representatives , Washington , I). C, 


We have carefully considered the foregoing letter and give it our 
unqualified approval, including the estimate of the number of sur¬ 
vivors eligible to the provisions of H. R. 24544. 

S. L. Glasgow. 

Saml. J. Crawford. 


APPENDIX. 


ACT OF MAY 15, 1828. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled , That each of the surviving officers of the Army of the Revolu¬ 
tion in the Continental line, who was entitled to half pay by the resolve of October 
twenty-one, one thousand seven hundred and eighty, be authorized to receive, out of 
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the amount of his full pay 
in said line, according to his rank in the line, to begin on the third day of March, 
one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, and to continue during his natural life: 
Provided, That under this act, no officer shall be entitled to receive a larger sum than 
the full pay of a captain in said line. 

Sec. 2. And it. is further enacted, That whenever any of said officers has received 
money of the United States, as a pensioner, since the third day of March, one thou¬ 
sand eight hundred and twenty-six, aforesaid, the sum so received shall be deducted 
from what said officer would otherwise be entitled to under the first section of this 
act. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, lhat every noncommissioned officer, musician, or 
private in said army, who enlisted therein for and during the war and continued in 
service until its termination, and thereby became entitled to receive a reward of 
eighty dollars ($80) under a resolve of Congress passed May fifteenth, one thousand 
seven hundred and seventy-eight, shall be entitled to receive his full monthly pay 
in said service out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to begin 
on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, and to con¬ 
tinue during his natural life: Provided, That no noncommissioned officer, musician, 
or private in said army who is now on the pension list of the United States shall be 
entitled to the benefits of this act. 

Sec. 4'. And be it further enacted, That the pay allowed by this act shall, under the 
direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, be paid to the officer or soldier entitled 
thereto, or to their authorized attorney, at such places and days as said Secretary 
may direct, and that no foreign officer shall be entitled to said pay, nor shall any 
officer or soldier receive the same until he furnish to said Secretary satisfactory 
evidence that he is entitled to the same in conformity to the provisions of this act; 
and the pay allowed by this act shall not in any way be transferable or liable to 
attachment, levy, or seizure by any legal process whatever, but shall inure wholly to 
the personal benefit of the officer or soldier entitled to the same by this act. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That so much of said pay as accrued by the pro¬ 
visions of this act before the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-eight, shall be paid to the officers and soldiers entitled to the same as soon as 
may be, in the manner and under the provisions before mentioned; and the pay 
which shall accrue after said day shall be paid semiannually, in like manner, ancl 
under the same provision. 

(U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 4, pp. 269, 270.) 

ACT OF JUNE 7TH, 1832. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, 
in Congress assembled, That each of the surviving officers, noncommissioned officers, 
musicians, soldiers, and Indian spies, who shall have served in the Continental line, 
or State troops, volunteers or militia, at one or more terms, a period of two years, 
during the war of the Revolution, and who are not entitled to any benefit under the 
act for the Relief of Certain Surviving Officers and Soldiers of the Revolution, passed 
the fifteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight, be authorized to 
receive, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the amount 
of his full pay in the said line, according to his rank, but not exceeding, in any case, 
the pay of a captain in the said line; such pay to commence from the fourth day of 
March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and shall continue during his 
natural life; and that any such officer, noncommissioned officer, musician, or private, 
as aforesaid, who shall have served in the Continental line, State troops, volunteers 
or militia, a term or terms in the whole less than the above period, but not less than 
six mouths shall be authorized to receive, out of any unappropriated money in the 



VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 


11 


Treasury, during bis natural life, each according to his term of service, an amount 
bearing such proportion to the annuity granted to the same rank for the service of 
two years, as his term of service did to the term aforesaid; to commence from the 
fourth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted , That no person, receiving any annuity or pension 
under any law of the United States providing for Revolutionary officers and soldiers, 
shall be entitled to the benefits of this act,* unless he shall first relinquish his further 
claim to such pension; and in all payments under this act the amount which may 
have been received under any other act as aforesaid, since the date at which the 
payments under this act shall commence, shall first be deducted from such payment. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted , That the officers, noncommissoned officers, mari¬ 
ners, or marines, who served for a like term in the naval service during the Revolu¬ 
tionary war, shall be entitled to the benefits of this act, in the same manner as is 
provided for the officers and soldiers of the army of the Revolution. 

(U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. IV, pp. 529, 530.) 


[House Report No. 6901, Fifty-ninth Congress, second session.] 

PENSIONS TO CERTAIN ENLISTED MEN, SOLDIERS, AND OFFICERS WHO SERVED IN THE CIVIL 

WAR AND THE WAR WITH MEXICO. 

January 29, 1907.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state 
of the Union and ordered to be printed. 

Messrs. Sulloway and Loudenslager, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions and 
the Committee on Pensions, sitting as one committee, submitted the following report 
to accompany S. 976: 

It is the opinion of your committee that the time has arrived when the Govern¬ 
ment should consider more liberally the claimsof those aged veterans, who, as the years 
advance, find themselves growing less able to earn their support. The great number 
of special pension bills constantly on the calendars of both Houses of Congress, 
growing greater each year, is a constant reminder of this enfeebled condition of the 
older veterans of the civil war. 

It is now forty-one years since the close of the civil war. No war since the Revo¬ 
lution has called for such heroic service, no war has involved equal hardships, and 
no war can be compared with it in importance to the life of the nation. That its 
soldiers should be treated with solicitude and care equal to those of any other war 
can not be denied; that they should be treated with greater consideration than the 
soldiers of any war since the Revolution, considering the character of the struggle 
and all it meant to the country, may well be conceded. 

The following shows the period which elapsed after each war before" a general- 
service pension was provided for the soldiers of such war: 

REVOLUTION. 

(а) March 18, 1818, tliirty-five years after the termination of the Revolution, 
was the first act. Beneficiaries under this act must have been in indigent cir¬ 
cumstances and need of assistance. 

(б) May 15, 1828, forty-five years after war, general pension was granted to all 
who served to end of the war. 

(c) June 7, 1832, forty-nine years after the war, the pension provisions were 
extended to all who served not less than six months. 

war of 1812. 

(а) February 14, 1871, fifty-six years after the close of the war. This act 
required sixty days’ service. 

(б) March 9, 1878, sixty-three years after the close, this period was reduced to 
fourteen days. 

WAR WITH MEXICO. 

(a) January 29, 1887, thirty-nine years after the close of the war. This act required 
sixty days’ service and applied to those who were 62 years of age or disabled or 
dependent. 

. INDIAN WARS. 

(а) July 27, 1892, fifty years after the close of the wars. This act applies to those 
who served thirty days in the Black Hawk, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole wars. 

(б) July 27, 1902, a law was passed extending the provisions of the above law to 
other Indian wars. 

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